After months of having never been forced to deal with the consequences of his actions, to the point where it almost felt like he believed he could do whatever the heck he wanted, Carson Hocevar is now out for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It was Spire Motorsports, rather than NASCAR, which suspended him after his non-stop brake-checking incident with Austin Cindric at Martinsville Speedway resulted in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford wrecking out the race.
Hocevar's arrogant attitude in his post-race interview quickly turned from "it's just Martinsville" to "this is an embarrassing day for me" when he found out that, yes, despite allegedly being Carson "Savior of NASCAR" Hocevar, actions can actually have consequences, even if NASCAR is afraid to act and his rivals are afraid to enact any sort of payback on the race track.
Carson Hocevar out for NASCAR season finale at Homestead
NASCAR did end up fining him $100,000 and docking him 25 points afterward, but let's be real; does anybody really believe they would have done anything if Spire Motorsports hadn't suspended him first? Credit to his race team for finally getting fed up enough and having the guts to do the right thing, although they share in the responsibility by promoting his whole act with the stupid social media graphic they posted a few months ago. You know the one we mean.
What we don't know is if the suspension will coincide with a 77% off sale on all Carson Hocevar merchandise, to follow past trends of Hocevar's on-track incidents.
What we do know is that's it's Justin Haley, the one full-time driver from the 2025 Cup Series season who did not actually return in 2026, who is set to take over behind the wheel of the No. 77 Chevrolet at Homestead this weekend.
Haley has spent the 2026 season running full-time for Kaulig Racing's new Ram Trucks program in the Craftsman Truck Series. He's 16th in the standings heading into Friday's season finale.
Haley, who spent the entire 2025 Cup Series season with Spire Motorsports, is the first race winner in the organization's history, having pulled off what is considered one of the great upsets of all-time in the July 2019 race at Daytona International Speedway.
He was only running 27th when the race-ending caution occurred, but the 26 drivers ahead of him were either involved in the wreck or pitted thinking that the race would resume before storms rolled in. The 2019 season was the team's first in the Cup Series, and Haley picked up the win in only his third career start.
Some fans believed that it should have been Corey Day, who is set to run select Cup Series races with Spire Motorsports next year, given the nod to replace Hocevar this weekend, but Day is still in contention to win the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship. He is set to enter Saturday's race 23 points out of the lead.
Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 is set to be shown live on NBC from Homestead-Miami Speedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season finale!
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